On a Mac without the developer tools, /usr/bin/git is a placeholder: running
it, even as `git --version`, makes macOS open its "install the command line
developer tools" window. The server asked "is git here?" exactly that way on
the first page load (isGitAvailable() from renderIndexHtml), so a no-admin
install on such a Mac ended with that window one second after the server
started, and it would have come back at every start. Found on a new MacBook
on 2026-11-06: the system log names the Codeman server as the parent of that
git process.
One gate now stands in front of every git the server starts
(src/utils/git-availability.ts). On macOS it resolves git on the PATH itself;
when that is the placeholder, `xcode-select -p` must name a developer folder
that holds a git of its own. xcode-select only prints and never opens a
window. Without the tools, git counts as absent and is never started: every
caller gets the ENOENT it already answers with "git is not installed".
A refusal is asked again after a minute, so installing the tools later needs
no server restart for the git features, and isGitAvailable() no longer
memoizes that one refusal.
Gated: the clone and worktree runners, the Git panel's status and fetch, the
update check and repository status, and Read My Mind's workspace signals.
test/git-spawn-gate.test.ts covers the decision and scans src/ for a git spawn
in a file that does not call the gate, with the reviewed list of sites pinned.
Checked for real on macOS 27 (Command Line Tools) and on a Mac with Xcode:
both resolve /usr/bin/git, find the tools and allow git, in 3 to 5 ms. The
refusal itself is covered by the unit tests; it still needs a run on a Mac
without the tools.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
